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Crumb piecing quilting with fabric scraps is a fun and easy way to turn leftover fabric into one-of-a-kind quilt blocks. A great stash buster that lets your creativity shine through. No patterns are needed!
What is Crumb Piecing Quilting with Fabric Scraps
If you’ve been quilting for any length of time, chances are good that you have a bin that’s overflowing with fabric scraps. Here’s a peek at mine.
It’s a little out of control, but I know I’m the only one. Quilters have always saved scraps.
And why not? Most quilts are made from scraps. That’s why we call it patchwork, because most quilts are made with patches of fabric that are pieced together into patterned blocks.
However, now that good quilter’s cotton runs fourteen dollars a yard and more, we’re saving more scraps than ever, holding onto ever smaller bits of fabric that we might have thrown away before. But what should we do with all those little scraps?
That’s where crumb piecing quilting with fabric scraps comes in.
Crumb piecing is an easy, creative way to turn small “crumbs” of leftover fabric into useable, unique quilt blocks. It’s a practical technique to add to your quilting toolbox. It’s also a lot of fun!
Getting Started with Crumb Piecing Quilting with Fabric Scraps
One of the great things about crumb piecing is that quilters don’t need to buy anything new to start doing it.
All you need is a pile of fabric scraps – even little crumbs – a sewing machine, and scissors. A rotary cutter, cutting mat, and ruler will make crumb piecing easier but aren’t absolutely required. If you’re already quilting, you likely have all that on hand already.
Since crumb piecing is a very improvisational quilting technique, you don’t even need a pattern. This is all about making it up as you go along!
How to Crumb Piece a Quilt Block – Choose Your Scraps
My crumb pieced blocks will be used in a quilt made with blocks from a swap I took part in years ago. The heart pattern on those swap blocks is the same, but everyone used different fabrics.
Because of that, I’m taking an “anything goes” approach with my scraps. Creating scrappy secondary blocks with a huge variety of colors will be a unifying factor for my many-colored heart blocks.
But you don’t have to go scrappy.
If you like, crumb pieced blocks can focus on just one color – all blues, yellow, red, pinks, etc. Or you can focus on a limited range of colors – blue and yellow, red and green, pink and purple.
Before you start sewing, it’s a good idea to iron your scraps. If they’ve been stuffed in a bin, they’re probably pretty wrinkled. Pressing out the wrinkles will make sewing them easier.
In crumb piecing and so much else, a picture really is worth a thousand words.
Follow along with commentary and photos below to see how to I stitched, trimmed, stitched, and repeated to create a cute, scrappy crumb pieced quilt block!
How to Crumb Piece a Quilt Block – Stitch, Trim, Stitch, Repeat
Start with Two Crumbs
Every crumb-pieced block starts by sewing two fabric scraps together along one straight edge. As with regular quilting, we use a quarter-inch seam and place the fabrics’ right sides together.
The two scraps do not need to be the same size or shape. In fact, it’s more interesting if they’re not. As you can see in the photo below, I started this crumb piece block with two differently sized rectangles.
Now, I could have just gone on from there, sewing more rectangles to the first two. But I think crumb pieced blocks are more interesting when they include some angles.
Angles and Changed Direction to Add Interest
For the next section, I decided to sew two triangles in a half-square triangle block and then sew another rectangle to the side to make it big enough to stitch onto the first section. But it was a little too big, so I trimmed off the excess fabric before pressing it open.
For the next round, I decided to use another rectangle scrap, turned sideways. Changing the direction of scraps is another easy way to add interest to crumb pieced blocks. Once again, the scrap wasn’t quite big enough to, so I stitched another crumb along one side and then trimmed it to fit after sewing.
My crumb-pieced block was starting to look pretty good! But do you know what would make it look even better? Even more angles.
Wonky is Good
I pieced together another section using some scraps that were cut on the bias. Then I used a ruler and rotary cutter to trim and straighten the edge so the two pieced sections could be sewn together easily.
Something else that I love about crumb piecing is that you don’t need to worry about matching seams. In crumb piecing, wonky is good!
To make the block bigger, I stitched strips along the peaked angles of the block. Next, I sewed some colorful squares together to make a wider strip. Then, I used my rotary cutter to trim the excess, creating a straight edge.
After sewing more fabric crumbs to increase the block size, I trimmed it down into an 11-inch square, the same size as the heart blocks from my long-ago swap.
Though I’ve still got a way to go before this quilt is finished, it’s coming along nicely. The scrappy, wonky, crumb pieced blocks pull things together. And they’ve been a lot of fun to make, too!
A Couple More Notes About Crumb Piecing Quilting with Fabric Scraps
Giving Orphans a Home
Crumb piecing isn’t just a great way to use up scraps, it can also make use of orphan blocks. Orphan blocks are the blocks we pieced and then abandoned, but couldn’t bring ourselves to throw away. We’ve all got a few of those, right?
There was a double wedding ring block in my scrap bin. My original idea for using a teal background…Well, let’s just say it didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped.
However, whacking it into scraps and adding a couple to my crumb pieced blocks was a very good idea! If you’ve got some orphan blocks lying around, cut them up and give them a home in your crumb pieced quilt.
Crumb Piecing for Applique or Traditional Blocks
This time, I crumb pieced my scraps into great big squares. But you can also cut crumb pieced blocks into shapes for applique or even into patches for use in traditional pieced quilts.
Here’s an example from a quilt I own, designed and made by Deb Tucker. She used crumb piecing quilting with fabric scraps in the traditional basket blocks. They really add a lot!
The Heart Blocks from my Quilt
One last thing I thought I’d mention, the heart blocks from my swap are the same blocks you’ll find in the pattern for my Broken Hearts Mending quilt, pictured below. It’s a companion quilt for the first book in my Cobbled Court Quilt series of novels.
Broken Hearts Mending is just one of eleven FREE companion patterns for my novels that you can download for your personal use from my website. Click this link to get to the patterns. 
